God blessed the trip so richly. We all returned encouraged by the progress being made, exhausted by heat, dust, the spiritual and emotional demands of village life, and hours spent in transit. The trip was made especially effective because of the diverse and gifted team we took: Dr Isaiah Dau from Nairobi Pentecostal Bible College joined us on the trip and taught the pastors in their own language; Edward Allen used his vast agricultural knowledge to test soils and treat cattle, and Denise Wright and Julie Mellor took the ladies by storm. A brilliant team.

For a few people in the village of Adoor it was just another day of scorching heat, grinding poverty and wondering where the next meal was coming from. 

For others, there was some excitement in the air that the ‘white people’ had returned for the third time in two years. They watched us with our shiny digital cameras, wearing clean clothes day by day, and they heard us talking in the language of the radio. They saw us eating strange meals in white plastic pots, gazing with fascination at the vultures and red kites overhead, petrified of the scorpions under foot. They laughed at us, kindly.

I spotted one little girl still playing with the hand-made teddy from St Albans delivered with love last year; then a group of tall Sudanese boys paraded proudly by in their new Watford football strip, unaware of the Premiership side’s recent run of form. It was wisest not to tell them! 

The other gifts our ‘dream team’ of 7 brought were, no doubt, a blessing to many. Perhaps none were more grateful than the 30 pregnant women given a mosquito net to protect them and their newborns from malaria. Thanks to a donation from Doncaster, lives have been saved.

As I take stock of another wonderful week in south-central Sudan, one conversation indicates to me the most significant impact of our partnership with these people. Under the shade of the largest tree in the village, we met with the village Chief, the Elders and Pastors, and numerous other men and boys who wanted to listen in. Harry Wake and I wanted to listen to the leaders of this community. What was their dream for Adoor? How could we, the Assemblies of God in Great Britain, help them turn their dry disease-ridden village into a healthy market town for the glory of God? What did they have to say to us?

After several interjections, one grey-bearded elder spoke with a smile. His name was ‘Yak’. He was saying thank you for visiting them in their poverty again, for dramatising the Bible story for the whole village each night, and for giving them oxen and ploughs to cultivate the land. 

His gratitude is genuine, and is passed on to you and everyone else who has helped us ‘lift up Sudan’ thus far. 

Agreeing with other community leaders, Yak then made an appeal for a school to teach the next generation, and a source of clean water for the people and the land. He then looked intently at us with this appeal: ‘We are one. If you want to help us, help us until we can stand on our own.’ 

And so we must, and by God’s grace we will.